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Pay TV boss renews calls for deregulation

The head of Australia's pay TV body Tony Shepherd is urging the federal government to release the regulatory handbrake on the industry.

The Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA) boss says Communication Minister Malcolm Turnbull has the chance to deliver long overdue media reforms.

"Today I renew our call on the federal government, one that believes in freer markets, to seize this historic opportunity to unleash a wave of growth and innovation by releasing the regulatory handbrake," Mr Shepherd told ASTRA's annual conference on Thursday.

Mr Shepherd said regulatory changes would assure the local pay industry, which turns 20 in 2015, of success in the decades ahead.

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Earlier this year, he called for deregulation of the TV industry given the rise of other services, including online TV and movie services that are not regulated.

He told the ASTRA conference that the 1,000 pages of regulation covering the broadcast industry were redundant given the popularity of online services.

Part of Mr Shepherd's argument for reform is that the pay TV industry doesn't cost the government anything in terms of infrastructure and will be a big user of the NBN when it is fully rolled out.